Greenwash

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Greenwash, snake oil, misleading and exaggerated claims etc

Fuel economy devices

HHO

The Ultimate Cell

Claims: "The Ultimatecell is powered by direct fused current from the vehicles 12v battery. The UltimateCell powers itself on-and-off and only creates minute-quantities of hydrogen gases On-Demand-when the engine is running. This technology, unlike others, does not rely on the large storage of fuel.
“When the engine starts, the UltimateCell initiates an electrolysis process that is electronically controlled. This results in the safe chemical separation of the Hydrogen molecules from the Water that will be fed into the engines air intake”
"The hydrogen produced within the vehicle works as a catalyst inside the engine head. This allows a faster and more complete combustion of the fuel. The result is an engine with optimum performance– always. This results in a cleaner, greener, smoother running engine. Power band torque is optimised resulting in easier, quicker driving through the gears. It would be found easier to remain in a higher gear for longer periods of time, thus resulting in less fuel been used and also reduced harmful tailpipe emissions. This saves you money and it is much greener to our environment."

Why Water Won't Improve Your MPG: A PM and Dateline NBC Investigation Mike Allen; Popular Mechanics; 27 Mar 2009

More than once, Popular Mechanics senior automotive editor Mike Allen has debunked the myth that you can triple your fuel economy by burning the hydrogen from water in your car. Now, he's teamed up with Dateline NBC and an EPA-certified emissions lab to test hydrogen generators, fuel heaters, fuel-line magnets and acetone fuel additives, once and for all.

Kinetic plates

Sainsbury's brings green power to the checkout with 'kinetic plates' Press Association; The Guardian; 15 Jun 2009

A supermarket chain will open its first "people-powered" store this week using technology that captures energy from vehicles to power its checkouts.
In a European first, Sainsbury's will install the invention at its new store in Gloucester, opening this Wednesday.
Energy will be captured every time a vehicle drives over "kinetic road plates" in the car park and then channelled back into the store.
The kinetic road plates are expected to produce 30 kWh of green energy every hour — more than enough energy to power the store's checkouts. The system, pioneered for Sainsbury's by Peter Hughes of Highway Energy Systems, does not affect the car or fuel efficiency, and drivers feel no disturbance as they drive over the plates.

Pavegen technology powers Christmas lights Institution of Mechanical Engineers; 2 Dec 2015

British technology firm Pavegen Systems has installed a power-generating pavement in Brighton to help promote the nation’s small, independent shops.
The company has installed 120 tiles along Meeting House Lane, one of the country’s oldest independent high streets, as part of Small Business Saturday on 5 December.
The power-generating pavement tiles will harness the kinetic energy of 41,000 shoppers' footsteps over the period of a week and convert it into renewable energy which will power Christmas lights along the street.

KINETIC PLATES Vilnis Vesma; The Energy Management Register; 19 Nov 2017

When this “kinetic plate” was installed in 2009, the Guardian published an article which suggested that it would harvest up to “30 kWh per hour” of “green energy” from the traffic passing over it. Rubbish, of course. Firstly (as was acknowledged in a muted disclaimer at the foot of the article) it wasn’t free energy; it was contributed by the passing drivers. But what about the 30 kWh per hour claim? That’s the equivalent of harnessing the output from engine of this Peugeot and running it flat out for 15 minutes in the hour.

Hydrogen from Urine

Debunked: Beneath the Lies, Nigerian "Pee Generator" Is Still Pissing Into the Wind Jason Mick; Daily Tech; 19 Oct 2015 (Copy on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)

Microbial Fuel Cell and Nigerian "urine-powered" generator

Bicycle generator

60 Minutes On This Bicycle Can Power Your Home For Twenty-Four Hours hfhadmin; Healthy Food House; 28 Jan 2019

Have you ever dreamt of powering your household without paying the huge costs? Can you imagine achieving it, and take care of your body figure at the same time?
Well, this was the amazing idea of the founder of the Free Electric hybrid bike, Manoj Bhargava. He uses mechanical energy in the simplest way possible in order to transform an hour of exercise into supplying a rural household with energy for 24 hours.
His mechanism is simple- the flywheel is activated when you pedal, and this powers the generator and charges a battery.
“The Free Electric is made with standard bike parts, which makes it easily fixable by any mechanic around the world. The bike is cheap, clean, and practical in terms of providing energy to those who need it most on a global scale.
Bhargava says:
“Our target is to begin with India, but really it can be used anywhere. There are 1.3 billion people around the world who are still living without access to electricity.”
Moreover, he claims that the Free Electric essentially creates “better health, more leisure time, better access to education, and opportunities for entrepreneurship—it could literally change the world.”
Have you ever heard of a better motivation to start exercising? The featured video gives you an opportunity to see this bike in action:
The Hans Free Electric™ bike: Solution overview Billions in Change; YouTube; 30 Sep 2015

What about the claims?

Hans free electric bike output.png

The video shows the bike generator producing 10 amps at 12 Volts = 120 Watts.

60 minutes on the generator will produce 120 Watt-hours.

Pedalling for 60 minutes once a day will generate enough energy to supply an average of 5 Watts over the day.

The average electricity consumption of European homes is approximately 500 Watts, and North American homes more than double that.

So the claim on a website clearly aimed at a Western, developed-world audience, that "60 Minutes On This Bicycle Can Power Your Home For Twenty-Four Hours" is clearly misleading by a factor of 100: it couldn't even power the average home with someone riding it 24*7. The suggestion in the video that it could be a back-up for mains power in European or American homes is equally misleading. However there is no reason to think that the machine doesn't work, and it could indeed – as the developer claims – provide a useful source of energy in parts of the developing world without access to mains electricity. Although solar panels might be an alternative option.